THE GOOD: Luke Scott. One night after leaving 8 men on base and getting intentionally beaned with a pitch, Wolverine exacted some revenge going 3-3 with an RBI single and a sac fly…Elliot Johnson. A bunt? And it worked?!? Mini Maddon’s bunt single in the 2nd scored the first run of the game for the Rays…Josh Lueke. It was his last game with the Rays for a while, but it was an impressive one, retiring all 3 he faced, striking out 2, and hitting 94 on the gun.

THE BAD: James Shields. After falling behind 2-0 early, the Rays fought back and tied the game and Shields was cruising having retired 9 of 10 batters. But then, with 2 outs in the 5th, Shields opened with 3 straight pitches out of the strikezone to Martin Prado, who would eventually walk. This was followed by a double, a walk, and a single, and all of a sudden it was 4-2.

THE TELLING: The Rays are now 2 games behind the Orioles…Will Rhymes was available to pinch-hit and pinch-run, but was not used…2010 first round pick Josh Sale hit his 5th home run in the last 8 games for low-A Bowling Green…Brandon Allen hit a home run on his rehab assignment for single-A Charlotte…Hideki Matsui played left field for Durham going 0-3 with a walk and a strikeout…Chris Archer struck out 9 in just 4.2 innings for Durham, but gave up 7 hits, 4 walks and 4 runs.

THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…

Josh Lueke was optioned back to Durham following the game and Alex Cobb was called up to take make the start tonight.

Add Joe Maddon to the list of injured. He pulled a hamstring after being chased by his neighbor’s dog that had gotten loose. And no, we are not making this up. [TampaBay.com]

Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik won the bidding to transform the Channelside area. While there are no plans for a baseball stadium, one can’t help but wonder if Vinik is positioning himself to be prepared in the event Stuart Sternberg wants to sell the team, or just wants a partner to help build a stadium in Tampa. [Shadow of the Stadium]

This is not a Tampa Bay Lightning cap that James Shields is wearing. [@CorkGaines]. Turns out it is a brand of sunglasses. [ElectricVisual]

Rich Thompson went on the MLB Network yesterday. Here is a cool shot of his old Phillies triple-A teammates watching him. [@Heatwave42]

Brian Price lost a third sibling and ended up in the hospital himself. [JoeBucsFan]

4 Comments

Getting bored..not much to look forward to with this group of "hitters"...... we'll see how Maddon's minor league pitching strategy works today.
Doesn't take much to entertain Atlanta's bull pen pitchers, Howell out to be in that group....please